maillard



l.- P. H. MAILLARD.

GAME.

APPLICATION HLED IULYIB. I919.

Patented -Dec. 2, 1919.

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wow 5 LOUIS PAUL HENRY MAILLARD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

GAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 2, 1919.

Application filed July 16, 1919. Serial No. 311,233.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS PAUL IIENI Y MAILLARD, a citizen of France, residin 1n the city, county, and State of New Ybrk, have invented an Improvement in Games, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to an improvement in games, one object being to provide a game capable of various adaptations and which may furnish opportunity for the exercise of skill in addition to the element of chance.

One embodiment of my invention is illustrated in the drawings accompanying the present specification in which- Figure l is a plan view,

Fig. 2, a transverse vertical section on the line 22 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3, a modification,

Fig. 4, a transverse vertical section on the line 4-1 of Fig. 3, V

Fig. 5, a ball actuating accessory, and

Figs. 6 and 7 counters or mar zers for marking the scoring progress.

Referring to the drawings, an embodiment of my. invention may include a game board having a roll way 1 adapted to accommodate a ball or marble. A ball deflecting member 9. is interposed in the path of the ball and adjacent to one end of the roll way, said member 2 being positioned to de fleet a ball projected against it along the roll way, toward and across an inclined portion 3. A plurality of ball receiving compartments 4 may be provided contiguous to the lower or depressed edge of the in clined portion and positioned to receive a ball or marble as it rolls down the inclined portion. By providing suitable markings 5 adjacent to the compartments the lodging of the ball therein may be made the basis of computing a score in units of any desired characterization.

Where it is desired to utilize the fortuitous or predetermined lodgment of the ball in the compartments, for indicating an increment of progress of a marker or the like, the board may also include markings; as squares, arranged in any suitable sequence. For this purpose, I provide relatively flat topped portions separated by the inclined portions 3 and elevated above the uppermost edges of the inclined portions, the shoulder thus formed being useful to limit the direction of motion of the ball or marble and to retain the same within the proper playing confines of the board. The top surface of said fiat topped portions may be laid off in squares 7 arranged in concentric series, each of which may be identified by a number, or other suitable mark, corresponding to a similar mark on a marker.

In playing the game, a ball or marble may be projected along the roll way 1 by means of a Triscotin or snapper 8, one end of which is pressed against the surface of the ball and in such a manner that the ball will be forced out from beneath the snapper and in the direction of the deflecting member 2. Its future course will depend to some extent upon the force with which it was started and upon the location of its point of impact with the deflecting member. Normally, the ball will roll down the incline and into a compartment. After some practice, a player may attain sufiicient skill to control in some degree the course of the ball, thus minimizing the purely fortuitous character f the game.

lVith the board shown in Fig. 1, each of two opponents has the necessary accessories of play and arranges his markers on the proper corresponding zero of the square series. An object of the game will be to advance the markers by increments corresponding to the number assigned to the particular compartment in which the ball lodges. The space between the nearest edges of the two flat topped portions may be considered as equivalent to an arbitrary number of squares and may constitute hazards or baflies beyond which the markers cannot advance unless the players ball is lodged in a compartment of such scoring value as to equal or exceed the number of points required to carry the marker beyond the hazard. The rules of the game may provide that the player who first advances all his markers around the series of squares will be the winner. Obviously other rules and provisions may be made to vary the character of play.

In the modification shown in Figs. 3 and 4c, a single playing construction is provided and the players may therefore play alternately. Likewise, the scoring unit is of a different character from that indicated in Fig. 1 although the game is played to reach a certain goal with markers which may be moved only in accordance with the increments indicated by the lodgment of the ball or marblein the several compartments.

I claim as my invention:

1. A game comprising a board, a ball, and means for moving the ball across the board,

said board comprising a roll way for the means for moving the ball across the board,

said board comprising roll ways beginning at each of two diagonally opposed corners and extending parallel with the sides of the heart a ball deflecting barrier adjacent the end of each roll Way, an inclined portion positioned adjacent to each ball deflecting barrier, and a plurality of ball receiving compartments arranged between the adjacent edges of the inclined portions.

3. A game comprising a board, a ball and means for mo ing the ball across the board, said board comprising roll Ways beginning at each of two diagonally opposed corners and extending parallel with the sides of the board, a ball deflecting barrier adjacent the end of each roll Way, an inclined portion positioned adjacent to each ball deflecting barrier, a plurality of ball receiving com partments arranged between the adjacent edges of the inclined portions, and relatively flat portions separated by the inclined porments arranged betwen the adjacent edges of the inclined portions, and relatively fiat portions separated by the inclined portions and elevated above the uppermost edges tl erect, said fiat portions having markings to indicate increments of progress in play.

5. A game comprising a board, a ball, and means for moving the ball across the board, a progress marker, said board comprising roll Ways beginning at each of tWo diagonall o osed corners and extendin arallel with the sides of the board, a ball deflecting barrier adjacent the end of each roll way, an inclined portion positioned adjacent to each ball deflecting barrier, a. plurality of ball receiving compartments arranged between the adjacent edges of the inclined portions, and relatively fiat portions separated by the inclined portions and elevated above the uppermost edges thereof, saidfiat portions having markings to indicate increments of progress in play.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification this 14th day of July, 1919.

LOUIS PAUL HENRY MAILLARD. 

